All Awesome Thingshttp://www.allawesomethings.com
A collection of things that are awesomeSun, 08 Dec 2013 20:09:53 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5A Baltimore Townhome…http://www.allawesomethings.com/2013/11/a-baltimore-townhome/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2013/11/a-baltimore-townhome/#commentsSun, 17 Nov 2013 06:55:05 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1437Continue reading →]]>… OUR Baltimore townhome! Since we’ll be in the area a few more years, it made sense to buy. I may be a little biased, but I think we bought the prettiest one. It’s small (about 960 sqft), but I think it’ll work well for us. We’ve lived here about 2 months now, and while there’s still a few things left to do, I think things are coming along nicely. Below are some before/after/in progress pictures.

The outside. Didn’t take a before picture, but here’s the picture from the listing.

We also added a window guard cat.

The living room. Actually pretty much the whole downstairs, the kitchen and half bath are toward the back.

We painted the living room a light gray.

Before view from the kitchen.

After.

The living room as it looked tonight (with bonus cats on the couch). There’s still some stuff to put away, but it’s starting to look pretty homey. Also note the awesome penny table (more on that, possibly after midterms).

The half bath downstairs, which has a drinking fountain sink!

I don’t have a picture of the kitchen, here’s the listing picture.

The upstairs (stairs are on the left where the wall juts out). Down the hall is the bathroom on the left, there’s a closet on the right, and the bedroom is in the back.

We painted the den the same color as the living room. Pretty sure this is my ‘why aren’t you painting something’ motion to Spencer.

Don’t have a current picture, but here is one post paint (it’s lighter in person).

The bedroom. Didn’t do anything in here. Well, except add our bed, and hang some sheets for curtains. We’re classy like that.

Laundry!

The bathroom.

That’s it for the house! We do have a small patio outback, will need to take pictures of it at some point. Only other thing to add is that the house did come with bonus cat. The weekend we got the keys we had a locksmith come by to rekey the locks. Out from under his van came the saddest, dirtiest, most flee-infested little kitten ever.

She just wanted some love.

We took her to the vet coz we’re suckers for small, sad lookin cats who just want love.

Luckily, except for an upper respiratory infection and being anemic from all the flee bites, she was disease free. She’s all better now and is doing a fantastic job being a cat (ie being adorable).

And she loves her Winston.

Or is maybe trying to strangle him.

He doesn’t seem to care which.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2013/11/a-baltimore-townhome/feed/4Oreo and Winston Saga – Part 1http://www.allawesomethings.com/2013/02/oreo-and-winston-saga-part-1/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2013/02/oreo-and-winston-saga-part-1/#commentsFri, 15 Feb 2013 03:52:52 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1421Continue reading →]]>Valentines day is once again upon us, like Winston fur on a black shirt. Rather than proclaiming to the world my never-ending love for my sweetie poopy, I put together this series capturing pretty much every relationship ever.

You spent how much money on that?! Why would you do that without discussing it with me?

Hmph. Well whatever I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

Fine, I don’t want to talk about it either.

I’m really sorry, please forgive me.

I do. I’ve said some mean things before too. Lets never fight again. Hugs?

I got a leg cramp trying to jump a wall just before this, so I couldn’t climb the rope . But man, look at Spencer scaling the wall!

Mud!!

More mud!!

The forest part of the run, this was the best part.

Waiting for an obstacle.

In the mud river at the very end.

Oh we so totally cheated death.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2012/08/mud-factor/feed/0Cherry Blossomshttp://www.allawesomethings.com/2012/03/cherry-blossoms-2/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2012/03/cherry-blossoms-2/#commentsSun, 25 Mar 2012 21:23:19 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1251Continue reading →]]>Cherry Blossoms!! This past Wednesday I took the day off to visit Census (more on this later); afterward I stopped by the tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms. It was awesome. It’s not my first time visiting, but it’s surreal every time. It was the perfect day for a picnic, if only Webster Spencer had been able to join. But I enjoyed my alone time, the random people asking me to take their picture, and the drunk man who asked me what kind of camera I was using then walked away after hearing my response without saying a word. Fun times.

I took this one with the intention of it being a perspectives pic, but I’m not feeling motivated enough to do a separate post.

This sign wasn’t lying; almost poked my eye out more times than I care to admit.

Birds were diggin about for feed!

This reflection one is by far my favorite.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2012/03/cherry-blossoms-2/feed/0Baltimore Dollar Days – Day 2http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-2/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-2/#commentsTue, 13 Dec 2011 03:46:09 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1186Continue reading →]]>Day 2 dollar days date destinations were the American visionary museum and the observation deck at the World Trade Center. They have a lot of interesting art at the museum, and this tree is among my favorites. I told Spencer we’re going to have one of these in our front yard some day.

I love how this thing catches light!

That’s it for the visionary museum. They don’t allow indoor photography which seems very odd. But there were some neat things including this toothpick sculpture, which he worked on off and on for 30 years. After the museum we went to the observation deck. This section of the window had the names of victims of 9/11.

Looking east.

Northeast. The blue/green building in the center is the new Hopkins hospital expansion.

The Pier Six Pavilion.

South east.

West.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-2/feed/0Baltimore Dollar Days – Day 1http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-1/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-1/#commentsMon, 12 Dec 2011 03:47:17 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1164Continue reading →]]>Last weekend was dollar days in Baltimore, where admission to most museums in the Inner Harbor area is only a buck. We wanted to go the the aquarium, the Maryland science center, the American visionary art museum, and the observation deck in the World Trade. We made it to everything except the aquarium because the line there went around the whole building.

So on to the science center! We saw a couple IMAX movies, and Spencer laid on the bed of nails; he had a good time.

After the science center we went to watch the 200 festively dressed tubas play holiday music! The music was surprisingly underwhelming, but the announcer man said they practiced once, for one hour, right before the event. So I guess considering that, it was pretty good. But there was a cute puppy in a santa hat!

And there were many Santas there.

And the tubas were pretty!

Awwwwww.

After dinner we saw the light show at the power plant, where they play music and project lights onto the building. It was only about 5 minutes long, but it was pretty good.

And finally we watched the parade of lighted boats. Here are a couple of our favorite boats.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/12/baltimore-dollar-days-day-1/feed/1Holiday Lantern Paradehttp://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/11/holiday-lantern-parade/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/11/holiday-lantern-parade/#commentsMon, 21 Nov 2011 13:32:09 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1131Continue reading →]]>There’s a bunch of holiday activities planned in the Inner Harbor, and since we’re close enough to walk, we’re going to try to see most of them. First up, the holiday lantern parade this past Saturday. It wasn’t much of a parade, maybe 10 minutes total, but it had it’s ups. It’s the first year they’ve done it so there’s bound to be kinks… and lameness. But it was a nice night, we saw the puffin, and got free cookies! Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.

The puffin!! THE PUFFIN!! Though the puffin was a jerk and didn’t stick around afterward for pictures. Not that I wanted a picture with him anyway. But look how cute he is! I guess I can forgive him this one time. More puffins here, here, and here.

The stilt-walking-lantern-headed people. They were having so much fun, especially the lady on the bottom right.

These star things where my favorite.

After the parade, Santa came out (that’s him in the middle) and gave a speech. He said something about the holidays?? I’d stopped listening, too preoccupied with trying to find the puffin.

The confetti at the end was awesome, looked like snow. I sure wish we get 10 feet this year.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/11/holiday-lantern-parade/feed/0DIY Paint Chip Magnets for the OCDershttp://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/diy-paint-chip-magnets-for-the-ocders/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/diy-paint-chip-magnets-for-the-ocders/#commentsWed, 21 Sep 2011 12:00:54 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1090Continue reading →]]>I’ve been meaning to tackle this DIY Pantone Paint Chip Magnet project from How About Orange for some time, but alas I had no pantone chips to speak of, and was waiting until something equivalently awesome came up. Well, on an outing to Lowes I came across this:

Perfect! This is actually cut up already, the original had about 25 rows, with about 15 chips per row. I started out by cutting them into strips…

then individual chips…

lots and lots and lots and lots of chips….

All the cutting got tedious, so I took a break and played with the blocks a little, first lining them up to see how I might want to group them. But this reminded me of a random walk, and then made me wonder if the blocks were aware of their stochastic activity, which then made me wonder if the blocks even know what stochastic meant, probably not perhaps I should explai– and dear god I’m talking to small strips of paper. Lesson learned, take more breaks during the cutting process.

After the cutting, I used double-sided tape to attach them to a thick piece of cardstock. Since I didn’t use bookboard, I needed something sturdy enough to give them some weight, and this seemed to work well.

Next I cut them out, attached the magnets, then it was time to glaze! I tried to find Aleene’s Paper Glaze she mentions in the article, but the store I went to didn’t carry it. So I went with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. I was a little worried about the ‘runnyness’ of it, but it worked great! I actually can’t imagine something thicker, seems like it’d be harder to work with. Plus, with a name like ‘dimensional magic’ you know it can’t be bad.

Goes on opaque…

but dries clear!! How cute are these! I should have used a dime as a reference, but the short side of these are about the size of a dime, long side just slightly larger than a quarter (you can also use the tape picture about, the tape is standard width scotch). They remind me of little flags! There is a slight air bubble problem but it’s hardly noticeable.

So what else can benefit from dimensional magic?!?! I had these small foam letter left over from a work project and I thought I could incorporate them somehow.

Ta da! This was made using more paint chips cut into squares. I had a mishap with the glaze and it spilled over the side mid-process. So there’s less dimensional magic going on, but I still think it turned out great! Shiny!

So I decided to do individual letters. If I find enough Xs and Os I think I’ll make enough to play tic tac toe! I’m totally smitten with this stuff.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/diy-paint-chip-magnets-for-the-ocders/feed/0Figuring It Out: Part 3http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/figuring-it-out-part-3/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/figuring-it-out-part-3/#commentsSat, 17 Sep 2011 16:33:33 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1002Continue reading →]]>I was browsing through my posts folder, and I came across a previous version on this post that never got published. It started out with “Rejection sucks” and proceeded to be a garrulous rant of the woe is me, self deprecating, my life is over variety. Rejection does suck, but dwelling on it helps no one.. and actually it makes Oreo cry.

But I’m glad I quickly got over that, moved on, and now I have some good news!

My last figuring it out post was purposefully cryptic, as everything was still unofficial, but I can now discuss it more fully. That is a picture of a goose (or duck?) taken in Fells Point, Baltimore, after I had my second (or fourth?) interview with Johns Hopkins University. It took a few weeks to make everything official with HR, but they hired me! The position is a biostatistician with the Welch Center. To say I’m excited is a huge understatement. I’m so excited about this opportunity and what lies ahead; so excited about the type of work I could, and will, be doing; so excited to work in this type of environment, with brilliant, passionate people. Yes, slight vomit, but I’m excited!

Perhaps what I’m most excited about is how this fits in with my career goals. I think this position pretty much meets the two goals I described in my first post on this topic. I’m sure it’ll be challenging analytically and creatively; it’ll give me the chance to use everything I’ve learned thus far; and that it’ll let me feel like I’m making a difference, however small it may be (well small at first). And as an added perk, it’s reaffirmed my nerdom! I love reading and learning about this stuff! I got an email a few weeks back when they ordered Stata for me* and I might have had a minor nerd freak-out involving many involuntary squeals and screeches, followed by excited giggles and oh-my-gosh-I’m-such-a-nerd realizations. But yay for Stata!

But at the same time it’s bittersweet and somewhat frightening. I’ve been in my current division for over five years. I’ve been fortunate to work with lots of awesome people and on some very interesting stuff, so it’s definitely like, the end of an era!

So I meant to publish this before I started my new job, but it wasn’t to be. I just finished my first week and hopefully a post will be forthcoming shortly! For now, here is a pic my awesome FIL, Lance, took on my last day at work. There I am standing like a goober, waiting for my ride with my moving boxes (and somehow still managed to blink even though I was unaware of the phototaking).

And the close-up… Woe is me personal moment? I think not

* Work gave me the CD, so I just installed Stata on my laptop tonight! I think I’ll like it (relax SAS, nobody could ever replace you), though earlier at work Stata and I got into a tiff when it blatantly refused to clear the results window despite repeated urgings, ctrl-Es, yellings, and pleadings from me.

]]>http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/09/figuring-it-out-part-3/feed/2SA: Part 3http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/08/sa-part-3/
http://www.allawesomethings.com/2011/08/sa-part-3/#commentsSun, 28 Aug 2011 01:43:47 +0000http://www.allawesomethings.com/?p=1067Continue reading →]]>We’re going through the HURRICANE OF DOOM Irene, or at least the weather people would like us to believe.. I swear the weatherman sounded disappointed when he said it’s a Category 1 instead of 2 or 3 like they originally expected, and that damage has been much less than expected… darn. but anyway, so it’s been raining all day. Since there’s not much we can do, I figured I’d catch up on the backlog of posts I’ve been meaning to write. Back in June Spencer and I went out to try to catch glimpses of the Minotaur Rocket Launch. The launch was delayed to the evening hours so we didn’t see anything, but it was still a nice summer night date, and a beautiful sunset!